Chapter 1 – Reincarnation, Transmigration and Fateful Reunion

“My name is Shiina Mai. Nice to meet you, everyone.”

Her lovely voice roused my consciousness.

It took me, Shiraishi Godou, a while to clear my consciousness but, gradually, I became more aware of the things that happened around me.

This place was a second year classroom of Ryoumei High in Gunma Prefecture.

The current time was 9am. In other words, the homeroom was still ongoing.

After confirming the situation, I turned my gaze to the front of the classroom. There was a beautiful girl standing in front of the podium. Her black hair was long and glossy. Though my consciousness was hazy, her beautiful face didn’t fail to captivate me. Her stature was small, but that only enhanced her cuteness if anything.

But, I didn’t recognize neither her appearance nor her voice.

No matter how forgetful I was, it should be impossible for me to not recognize any of my classmates.

As I was racking my brain in that direction, I suddenly remembered something.

The other day, the homeroom teacher said that there would be a transfer student coming to this class.

…Now, everything finally started to make sense. That was the reason why she was standing in front of everyone like this.

I didn’t expect the transfer student to be this pretty, though…

Her dainty appearance took everyone by surprise. Not only the boys were captivated, even the girls too.

“Oi, oi, she’s crazy cute! Damn, I’m excited now! What about you?”

The boy sitting in front of me turned around and started talking to me.

“Uh… I guess, yeah…”

Halfway through my reply, I let out a yawn.

“What’s wrong, Godou? You seem to be in low spirits today.”

The boy who was currently tilting his head to my direction was my bad friend, Kudou Shinji.

Beneath his brown hair was a disgustingly good looking face. His stature was bigger than me, but the way he dressed was sloppier than me. Every inch of his body screamed ‘frivolous’.

“I worked until late last night. I’m sleepy.”

I answered while rubbing my eyes.

Though, perhaps because of the appearance of the cute transfer student, my drowsiness was already halfway gone.

“You’re still at it, huh? Your part time job, I mean.”

“…Gotta do it if I want to get more money. As long as you have money, you can do anything.”

“Haha, you and your manga villain act.”

Shinji laughed out loud. Suddenly he grinned, an idea probably came up in his mind.

“Right, if your workplace is in need of help, why don’t you ask that transfer student to work there? Your workload will decrease and you’ll get to know a cutie like her, two birds with one stone.”

“…And the catch is? No way you’re suggesting something like this for free.”

“Of course not. You’ll have to introduce her to me afterwards!”

He hit me on my shoulder.

“You’re just trying to make use of me, aren’t you? …Besides, I don’t think she’s the kind of person who’ll break the school’s rules for no reason like that.”

They kinda tolerated it but, strictly speaking, working part-time was against the school’s rules.

The transfer student, Shiina Mai, was it? …She looked quite nervous currently, but I could tell that she was a serious student. She was definitely not the kind of student who would break school rules for no reason.

Shiina finished her introduction and sat down. Her seat was on the opposite side of the room compared to mine, which was by the window. It was simply too far away for me to walk there and start a conversation with her.

“Hello! Can I call you ‘Shiina-san’?”

“How do you do! Woah, you’re prettier up close!”

She was greeted by everyone in her vicinity. Judging from the flustered look on her face, though, she didn’t seem to be someone who was good at socializing.

“She seems to be a bona fide beautiful girl, huh?”

Shinji nodded happily.

This guy had the tendency to use that pretty face of his to ensnare every beautiful girl he found. To put it simply, he was your average philanderer.

The girls in the class were aware of this, so he had a bad reputation among them. He didn’t seem to care about that, though. Well, his scope of activity wasn’t restricted to the school ground, so I guess receiving the ire of his girl classmates wasn’t a big deal to him.

“The girls in this class are pretty, but they are impure. I mean, look at those hairs. What’s the point of dying them brown or blonde? There is a severe lack of black-haired beauty around here and then, the new girl came! Like an oasis in the desert! Her existence is perfect!”

“She didn’t move in here to satisfy your fetish, you know?”

I looked at Shinji listlessly before turning my gaze to Shiina again.

By this time, the homeroom had ended and she was surrounded by the other girls. It was difficult to tell what was happening from here, but they seemed to be bombarding the poor girl with questions.

This was something every transfer student had to go through at one point in their life. If they weren’t good at socializing, well, tough luck.

“You two aren’t going to talk to her?”

A gentle voice reached my ears. A girl with permed brown hair approached us.

“I mean, look at that… I can’t talk to her even if I want to.”

I said, pointing to the swarm of people.

“Well, Godou is Godou, but what about you, Shinji? I thought you’d be the first one crawling over to her.”

“I know when to back down. That’s one reason why I’m popular to begin with.”

He let out a snort before shrugging his shoulders.

“Besides, I’m in no hurry. They’ll get sick of doing that soon enough anyway.”

“Treating people like a freak show, nice personality you got there.”

“I’m just stating a fact. That’s just how humans are. After they get used to her presence, her surroundings will die down. Besides, from the way Shiina is acting, this situation won’t stay like this for too long.”

The name of the girl who was sighing at Shinji’s words was Kirishima Hina.

Like Shiina, she was a beautiful girl. She had big, bright eyes and a high nose. Her skin was white without blemish and her lips were luscious and plump. In addition to her heavenly face, she had a slender waist and was blessed with an ample amount of meat in her chest.

“…What is it, Godou? Why are you staring at me like that?”

We had known each other since we were kids. In other words, we were childhood friends.

Our relationship was so close that we felt more like siblings than friends.

“…Don’t mind me. Anyway, what kind of person is she? Shiina Mai, I meant.”

I asked that question to change the topic. Hina tilted her head in confusion.

“Hm… I don’t know… I was there for a bit, but we didn’t talk much…”

By ‘there’, she meant that she was among the crowds who talked to Shiina, if it wasn’t obvious already.

“She seems to be a serious and quiet girl, but then again, it’s her first day here, so she’s probably nervous. Give her time and we’ll know what her actual personality is like.”

Shinji nodded his head and said,

“Even though she is that pretty, she doesn’t seem to have much self-confidence. Is she unaware of her beauty? Or is she just overly self-conscious about it? I wonder what kind of person she is~”

“Why don’t you try to ask her directly?”

“By the way, I hope that she is the former type. It’ll be easy to make her fall for me if that’s the case. I’ll only need to give her enough praise, that’ll do the magic. Though, the chance of her being the former is low though. I mean, there aren’t many people who’re that self-unaware…”

“Don’t care. Didn’t ask.”

His words had a semblance of truth in it though. There was no way that people hadn’t praised her look already, so she should be aware of it.

While thinking about such things, I stared at Shiina, who was talking with one of the girls.

Suddenly, our eyes met.

Her gaze felt unnaturally sharp.

I realized that I was staring at her for too long, so I averted my gaze.

Still, that sharp gaze of hers felt unreal. She didn’t seem to have a strong enough personality to do that. Even now, she was still smiling awkwardly at the classmates who were talking to her.

It was probably my imagination.

“Imma go to the toilet.”

I muttered before standing up.

The first class wouldn’t start for a while, so might as well get finished with my business first.

“Have fun~”

“Don’t use this as an excuse to skip class later, okay?”

I headed for the door while being escorted by the waves of troublesome people.

To get to the door, I passed by Shiina’s seat.

“?”

That was weird.

The air felt strangely familiar.

I wanted to stay and investigate this, but it would be weird if I were to suddenly stop in front of the transfer student’s seat.

In the end, I decided to let it go. I went outside the classroom with furrowed brows.

While I was walking down the hallway, I started to rack my brain.

What was that feeling?

It felt like I knew the transfer student from somewhere. Neither her appearance nor her voice were familiar to me, but it felt like I knew her well. It was… Her atmosphere… Yeah, I recognized that atmosphere…

The air around her felt so familiar to me.

But I failed to connect it to a specific person.

Were we acquaintances? If so, when or where did we meet?

Many questions surfaced, but it seemed like those questions wouldn’t be answered anytime soon.

Well, everything could just be my imagination.

“Did you hear? They said that the new transfer student in class 2 is a real cutie!”

“I heard that. I’ve been curious about it… Wanna take a look later?”

“I’ve already done that. She’s a real cutie. I almost thought she was an idol for a second there.”

As I was walking toward the toilet, I could hear the other students talking about the new girl.

I guess the news reached the other class already, huh?

It wasn’t surprising though, since she was that cute.

“But still…”

She moved in right before the summer vacation, a really strange time to be transferring school as it was halfway through the school year. Did she have a reason in particular? Well, there was no way that she did it without a real reason behind it… While thinking about such things, I arrived at my destination, the toilet.

Just as I was about to open the door to finish my business quickly…

A voice called out to me from behind.

“Can I have a word with you?”

My whole body stiffened.

I heightened my guard in reflex.

I didn’t notice someone creeping up on me until they were this close? How did this happen?

When I turned around to see who it was, the first thing that came to my sight was a pair of jewel-like eyes.

Gradually, my sight received more information about the person before me. Her long, beautiful black hair. A face so beautiful that it wouldn’t be strange if you were to fall in love with her at the first sight. Short stature that only enhanced her cuteness. Without a doubt, this person was the transfer student, Shiina Mai.

“Oh my, there is no need to look this surprised. I know that I called you out of nowhere and I’m new around here, but I’m still your classmate, aren’t I?”

Said Shiina with a mysterious smile on her face.

Unlike her meek attitude at class, she was acting quite haughtily in front of me.

“…What did you just do? Just who the hell are you, really?”

I narrowed my eyes and asked.

I focused my gaze on her so I wouldn’t be missing the slightest bit of her reaction.

I didn’t let my guard down and I had a good reason for that.

There was no way a student from this world could creep up on me without me knowing like that.

“Didn’t I introduce myself previously? Shiina Mai. That’s my real name, you know? In this world, at least.”

Said Shiina in a mocking tone.

“This world, huh?”

Obviously, I didn’t miss that part of her words.

That fearless look of her meant that it wasn’t spoken in jest, so that could only mean one thing.

She was related to my previous life.

“It’s been a long time, Hero. Your appearance in this world doesn’t look as manly as before.”

The way she called me. That tone. That high-handed attitude. I knew this girl very well.

I previously failed to connect the dot because her current appearance looked nothing like her previous one.

“Finally you’ve noticed. You’ve lost your touch, haven’t you? Taking so long just to notice something trivial like this.”

If she was like me, a reincarnated individual, then it wasn’t strange that she would look different.

The transfer student’s appearance overlapped with a certain someone from my previous world’s appearance.

“You… The Witch of Calamity… Cerys?!”

To my surprised shout, Shiina Mai, no, the witch, Cerys, nodded her head.

* * *

I, Shiraishi Godou, had memories of my previous life.

Back then, I was known as Grey Handlet.

I was born, grew and died in a different world than the one I was currently in.

Those memories were my own memories, I was certain of it.

Back when I was a child, I only dreamed of those memories occasionally, but as I grew older, the frequency of the dreams started to increase. At first, I only thought of them as a series of realistic dreams, but the continuity and the consistency of these convinced me that it wasn’t the case. Besides, those dreams weren’t something that could be produced by a child’s limited imagination.

At one point in my life, I suspected that I was afflicted with some kind of mental illness.

There was a time when I consulted my parents about it. I managed to convince them that I had been constantly having nightmares.

I could elaborate more by telling them the details of the dreams. Like, how in those dreams, I was a young man living in the world of sword and magic and so on. But I didn’t want my parents to treat me like a lunatic, so I decided not to.

In the end, my parents brought me to a hospital, but they found nothing wrong with my brain. They dismissed it as me having a severe case of chuunibyou, which I clearly wasn’t, but I didn’t want to start a fight, so I just hid my dissatisfaction deep inside my heart.

It wasn’t until the summer of my first year of high school that I finally remembered everything about my previous life. I realized that the boy named Grey Handlet was my previous identity.

…But, I’ve never told anyone about this.

No one would believe me even if I told them. The people of this world wouldn’t believe in the existence of another world. To them, reincarnation and transmigration were something that only happened in fiction.

Besides, even I didn’t know why I was reincarnated in the first place.

In addition, I got reincarnated in another world, with my memories intact nonetheless.

The situation revolving around my reincarnation was a complete mystery. I didn’t know what exactly happened and I had no way to find out.

So, I decided to live as an ordinary high school student in the meantime.

I didn’t know why I was reincarnated, but this was a chance for me to live a second life.

This time, I’d live my life freely without being tied to something like heroic duty or whatnot. Or so I thought.

Without warning, those peaceful days had crumbled down at this very moment.

“You still can’t believe my words, can you?”

The witch, Shiina, smiled as she said that.

Immediately after, a silver staff appeared in her hand.

She hadn’t brought anything resembling the staff, it really appeared out of nowhere. The thing was as tall as her body and there was no way that she could hide it inside her school uniform.

This was the phenomenon that defied the law of physics.

The technique that manipulated the unknown.

Magic.

“This should be sufficient as a proof. After all, witches don’t exist in this world.”

This world was ruled by something called science instead of magic. That was the reason why I’ve never seen a mage or something similar in this world. Even if they existed, they wouldn’t be flailing their magic around as they would be busy hiding. Besides, their existence would be something really rare. Also, the average person in this world thought of magic as something that only existed in fiction.

“You can use magic in this world?”

“Just some simple magic like what I did just now. The reason why this world isn’t aware of the existence of magic is because mana itself is scarce here. Just gathering enough of them to use the lowest tier of magic takes a huge amount of effort. Even I, the strongest witch, has to gather them for years to use a higher tier magic, so it’s no wonder that the residents of this world aren’t aware of mana. It’s really inconvenient. Back in the other world, I could gather that much mana overnight.”

The witch said in a displeased tone.

So that was why she used a simple magic like this instead of just transforming the whole school building into something else entirely.

“I see…”

Unlike the witch, I couldn’t use any magic. Not back then, not now.

I simply didn’t have a talent for magic. Besides, I didn’t need magic to fulfill my duty.

“Shiina Mai. It’s hard to believe, but after seeing your magic, I have to accept it whether I like it or not… That you’re the reincarnation of the Witch of Calamity, Cerys… That aside…”

Then, I asked her.

“What the hell is going on?!”

I was aware that my question was vague.

But it couldn’t be helped. I didn’t even know where to start.

“We both transmigrated, reincarnated and met each other again in this world? There is no way that this is a coincidence. Is this part of your plan? Is our reincarnation your doing? Tell me!”

“…Well, where should I start?”

The witch put her hand over her mouth and pondered.

She seemed to be struggling with how she should start her explanation as she didn’t seem to show any reluctance.

Suddenly, the bell for the first period rang.

“Ah…”

“Ah… The class should have started already, well, whatever, it can’t be helped considering the circumstances.”

I haven’t skipped too many classes and it felt a shame that I had to do it today, but it couldn’t be helped. This matter was that important, after all.

“Witch? What’s wrong?”

For some reason, her face turned pale.

“N-Nothing… Y-Yeah, you’re right, it can’t be helped considering the circumstances…”

The witch let out a series of coughs.

Could it be, she was bothered by this? Was it the first time she ever skipped class or something?

Really? Was this the same person as the one who plunged the world into disaster? The Witch of Calamity, Cerys Flores?

No way she was bothered by this right? Yeah, no way in hell. It was probably my imagination.

“Someone might hear us if we were to talk here. Let’s move.”

Our surroundings were quiet, probably because the class had started already. The only voice that could be heard was the teachers’ voice leaking from the classrooms. From that, it was easy to tell that if we were to talk here, everyone inside the classroom could also hear our voices. If we didn’t move somewhere else, they would find out that we were skipping class quickly.

“The rest area in front of the club building should be deserted, let’s go there…”

After thinking of a perfect place to talk, I turned my back to her, but I suddenly felt a sharp killing intent from her direction.

I immediately turned around in reflex.

The witch bent her knees and kicked the floor of the hallway to sprung her body toward me. She appeared right in front of me. Almost instantly, she thrusted her staff right in front of my throat.

Her movement was fast. All I could do was to follow her movements with my eyes and nothing else.

I could feel my spine becoming cold as she narrowed her eyes after seeing my pathetic state.

“…Just as I thought, you’ve lost the powers of your previous life. The old you would’ve easily dodged this even when I fully reinforced my whole body with magic.”

Her words were true.

I was way weaker than back in my previous life. Well, it wasn’t even worth comparing to begin with.

“…The human’s body in this world is poor. It’s hard to move around like I did in the previous world.”

I shrugged my shoulders.

The people in that world were much stronger than in this world.

Rather, the people in the other world were just built different.

Their basic capabilities were pretty much the same, but the warriors from that world were able to do superhuman feats after a little training. They could run hundreds of meters in less than five seconds, jump ten meters or more without preparation, smash through rocks with their swords and shatter chunks of iron with their fists.

My feats in particular, were extraordinary even among those superhumans. After all, I was the world’s strongest hero. I was a superhuman among those superhumans.

But, that was a story from the past. Right now, I was only a little stronger than a normal high school student.

“…I guess that’s the case, huh? I was just trying to confirm my guess, so no need to be afraid of me.”

“You sure you weren’t actually trying to kill me?”

I complained to the witch who withdrew her staff from my throat. I felt relieved by the action, but I still felt bitter.

“We should move to somewhere deserted.”

She crossed her arms, as if to say ‘lead the way’. I had no choice but to follow her biddings, I could try to disobey her, but she would probably kill me if I did.

“…”

While walking, I started to think.

About the differences between the physical ability between the human of this world and another one.

I tried to see if I could regain the power I had back in my previous life, but to no avail. No matter how hard I trained, I couldn’t regain even a percent of my power back then.

“It was the influence of magic.”

Said the witch in a matter-of-fact manner. It seemed like she was aware of what I was thinking about.

“The warriors from the other world absorbed the mana around them when they were training. Even if they didn’t have the talents required to do magic, the mana they absorbed wouldn’t dissipate. The more they trained their body, the more mana that would assimilate into their bodies and the stronger their body would get.”

That was the first time that I’ve ever heard of that.

It wasn’t a well known theory in the other world.

“In other words, in a way, the warriors from the other worlds were also magic users.”

Conflicts between warriors and mages weren’t uncommon in that world. If this kind of theory were to spread around in that world, it would turn it upside down.

“I never knew about that…”

I nodded, hiding my surprise.

Saying absurd things without batting an eye like that, she hadn’t changed at all.

“But, there is too little mana in this world to make that phenomenon possible. Let alone letting the mana assimilate to your body, rousing them in the first place is hard enough. That’s why, I don’t think you’ll be able to get your power back.”

It was hard to believe, but her logic was sound.

She was a master of magic and she knew about mana and such more than I did.

Besides, her theory was still in the realm of logic, I couldn’t refute her words even if I wanted to.

“This place should be good.”

We arrived at the rest area in front of the club building. There were benches and vending machines here.

The place was near the entrance of the gym and was often used by the members of the sports club. Normally, this place would be crowded, but there were certain hours when it was deserted just like right now.

I turned around to face the witch.

I narrowed my eyes, watching the witch’s every move.

“Hehe, what is it? Are you still holding a grudge over my previous action?”

“Of course. I won’t let you have your way on me more than once.”

“You can’t win against me no matter how hard you try, don’t you know that? Unlike you, I still have my power. Yes, it’s hard to use it, but it’s still something compared to you.”

Said the witch while smiling mysteriously.

Actually, I’ve been wondering about that.

Yes, I lost my power, but I still had ample amounts of combat experience from my past life. Even if my power was merely at the level of a normal high school boy, I should be unbeatable when it came to fighting if my opponents were merely normal humans.

Even if the witch enhanced her body with magic, as long as she didn’t do a surprise attack like last time, I would still be able to retaliate. Besides, she said it herself, she couldn’t use higher tier magic even if she wanted to.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you. I mean, what’s the point?”

“…I guess so.”

The witch turned her back on me. Seeing that, I let my guard down.

She was right, what was the point? If I were to push myself, I could win and kill her if I wanted to, but there was no point in doing that. The only thing that would come out of it was that they would brand me as a criminal for assaulting a high school girl.

“Want something to drink?”

I asked the witch who was looking at the vending machine.

I took out my wallet and put a hundred yen coin into the machine, then I chose a canned coffee randomly. By the way, most of the drinks in the machine cost a hundred yen each, so they were affordable by the students.

“No, I…”

She rummaged through her pocket then turned away awkwardly.

“You didn’t bring your wallet?’

“It’s in my bag…”

“Alright, I’ll buy you juice then. It’s to celebrate our reunion, I guess.”

I took the canned coffee then opened it.

A pleasant sound echoed as I did it.

“I remember you used to like apple juice, am I right?”

Somehow, I managed to remember that trivial thing she said from our previous life.

She didn’t say anything to my question, so I took her silence as a ‘yes’ and bought an apple juice from the vending machine.

“…Thank you.”

Said the witch as she furrowed her brows and turned her face away from me.

Now, that was a surprise. I didn’t expect her to thank me at all. I guess her parents in this world taught her a little about manners, huh?

Or it could also be that this world influenced her in a way or another.

Perhaps noticing what I was thinking about, she scowled at me.

“What is it? That’s for me, isn’t it? Hurry up and give it to me then.”

“Yes, yes, here, take it.”

“Ah, W-Wait!”

Because I threw the can so suddenly, she flailed her hands, attempting to catch it midair.

She managed to do it, but between the pompous gestures she previously made and her current appearance… The gap was surely something, huh?

“Calm down, you don’t need to use such big moves to catch something like this.”

“How about just hand it to me properly instead of throwing it away suddenly like that?!”

“Your reflex is as horrible as always. You still can’t react to sudden movements like this.”

“I can! I just need to use my magic!”

“Don’t use it for something trivial like this. Didn’t you say it’s hard to gather mana in the first place?”

“Ugh…”

The witch turned her face away with a ‘hmph’.

That looked kinda cute actually.

Unlike in the other world when she had a bewitching appearance, her current appearance made the arrogant gestures that she normally did look cute instead.

“Alright, it’s time to talk about the real topic at hand…”

“Right… But first, can I ask you something?”

“What is it?”

“When did you fully remember everything from your previous life?”

“Last year, during the summer. Before that time, I only dreamed about them.”

“I see… Around the same time as me then…”

“So, is your question related to why you’re approaching me?”

No matter how you looked at it, there was no way that she transferring here was a coincidence.

Also, she was aware of my identity as Grey even before we started talking to each other.

She must have some kind of goal, I’m sure of it.

“Could it be… You’re approaching me to take revenge on me?”

“Of course not. Didn’t I tell you earlier that doing something like that is pointless?”

“Then, why the hell did you transfer here in the first place?”

I couldn’t find another reason for her to transfer here other than to see me.

“How do I explain this… I’m here to confirm your presence here… Also to observe you, I guess…”

“Confirm? I knew it, this whole transmigration thing was your doing, wasn’t it?”

“Correct. I need you to be here, that’s why I sent you here.”

She answered my question, but she kept glossing over the important thing while acting all pompous. It seemed like she was hiding something.

“You need me to be here? Elaborate.”

She frowned at me when I asked that.

It seemed like she disliked that question, but what else could I do? I had to know the answer, who cared about her feelings on the subject.

“I don’t know how to explain it…”

“I know you’re bad at explaining things, so don’t worry, take your time.”

“Shut it.”

The witch fiddled with the apple juice she was holding. With her gaze at the ground, she opened her mouth to speak,

“…I mean.”

“What?”

“You know… I… live… And…”

“…And?”

I could barely hear her words.

As I furrowed my brows to show my unamused expression, she,

“I-I!”

Closed her eyes and cried out.

“I can’t live without you, okay?!”

…What?

* * *

After confirming that I wasn’t hearing things, I asked her a question.

“What the hell are you on about?”

“Look, I’m not saying this because I want to, okay? It’s just the way it is!”

She looked away, her face was red like a tomato.

Seeing this, I realized something.

“Did you fall for me? Was that a confession?!”

“N-No, it’s not!”

“Sorry, I didn’t notice your feelings sooner… But still, sorry, I can’t accept that feeling of yours.”

I coolly rejected her while fiddling with my hair.

If she was one of my normal girl classmates, I would be excited when hearing her confession, but she was the witch, so yeah, no way I would be excited.

“Stop it! I-I didn’t mean it that way, okay!”

“What the hell are you talking about then?”

Well, figures. There was no way that she would harbor such feelings toward me.

After all, our relationship wasn’t that simple.

Both the witch and I were sworn nemesis in our previous lives. We tried to kill each other countless times.

We might have feelings toward each other, but rather than love, it was hatred.

That was why her ‘confession of love’ sounded ridiculous to me the first time I heard it.

I brought my face closer to hers, but she backed away quickly with a reddened face.

“Y-You’re too close!”

“Is that so?…”

Our faces weren’t close enough for her to be blushing like that, though.

Like in her previous life, she was still bad at socializing, huh?

The witch coughed and took a deep breath.

“…As you know, my soul is cursed.”

“That’s the price you had to pay for cursing the world, right?”

“Right. Like they said, you get what you paid for. There’s always a price to pay whenever I use witchcraft¹Author used 呪術 (Jujutsu) here, which has the same meaning as 魔法 (Mahou)/Magic, but since the kanji for Jujutsu literally meant ‘curse technique’, I’ll be translating it to ‘witchcraft’ instead. I could translate it to ‘sorcery’ like what they did to Jujutsu Kaisen/Sorcery Fight, but I think ‘witchcraft’ is more fitting in this context.. In exchange for cursing the world and plunging it into disaster, a curse equivalent to that curse in power was bound to my very soul.”

While they used the same mana to operate, witchcraft was different from normal magic.

Witchcraft was a rare branch of magic that was born by infusing mana with dark emotions. It had a more destructive nature than normal magic, but the user had to pay the cost of casting such magic.

Because of that demerit, the branch of magic was abandoned hundreds of years before I was born. Normal magic was simply way more convenient as you didn’t need to kill yourself just to inflict some damage to your enemies.

That was until she managed to revive it.

Thanks to that, she was able to single-handedly plunge the world into a disaster.

“If I were to die, my soul would disappear and the curse that was bound to my soul would lose its vessel and spread throughout the world. There’s no one in this world who can suppress this curse other than me, that’s why…”

“Ah, I see…”

I heard the same thing came out from her mouth back in the previous world.

But still, what she said back then didn’t actually happen in the previous world. Instead, she was reincarnated into this world.

Wait, does that mean that the same curse wouldn’t afflict the other world?

As if she knew what I was thinking about, the witch continued to speak.

“When I was about to die, I used reincarnation magic. It won’t change anything as my soul will still be bound by the curse, but at least I can buy some time with it.”

“I understand why you did that, but why did you choose to reincarnate in another world?”

“That’s because… I don’t want to put that world in danger anymore… It’s the world you just saved after all… If I transferred my soul into another world, that world would be safe…”

Said the witch, as if she was reassuring me.

I did wonder what would happen if another calamity struck that world once more.

There was no more hero in that world, could the people survive?

Anyway, that wasn’t important for now. The witch said something that bugged me.

“If that’s the case, then won’t this world be in danger instead?”

“Correct. Well, I didn’t care about what would happen to the world that I didn’t know.”

Said the witch with a dismissive tone.

It was obvious that she was lying though, so I asked her,

“So, what’s your plan? If you’ve talked this much, that means you have some kind of plan to save this world somehow, right?”

She wouldn’t be here, speaking to me, if she didn’t actually care about what happened to this world. After all, she put so much effort into making sure that the curse wouldn’t spread in the other world even though she hated it. There was no way that she would feign indifference toward a world she didn’t know of.

“I don’t like the way you speak as if you’ve figured me out… But yes, you’re correct…”

She pointed at my face.

“You. You’re the plan.”

I see.

So that was why she dragged me to this world with me.

“So you need my exorcism, huh?”

Exorcism. It was exactly what it called, a technique to exorcize²While the author used 祓魔 (Futsuma) here, which refers to strictly Christianity’s way of exorcism instead of 祓 (Harae) which is Shinto’s way of exorcism, for some reason, the exorcism this novel is talking about is Shinto’s exorcism. In other words, fighting demons and purifying curses and the supernaturals is part of the jobdesc instead of only dealing with evil spirit possession. demons and curses.

By interfering and dispersing mana flow, it could nullify every phenomenon that was caused by magic. Witchcraft was no exception to this. Although it was different in nature than normal magic, one still needed mana to perform witchcraft.

The user of exorcism was also rare, that was because only those who were unable to manipulate mana could perform it. In other words, only ‘talentless’ people could do it.

There weren’t many people who couldn’t use mana in the previous world. You could scour the entire continent and at most, you’d only find a hundred or so of such people.

“Yes. You’re the only one who could dispel my curse, after all.”

I was one of those people.

Being able to use exorcism was the pre-requirements to kill the witch.

Exorcists³祓魔師 (Futsuma-shi/Exorcist) was used here instead of Priest or something like that. like me were natural counters to the witch since she thrived by manipulating mana.

It was possible for other people to kill her, but if they were to do that, the curse in the witch’s body would spiral out of control and bring even bigger disaster to the world. That was why only exorcists were allowed to kill them.

And that was the reason why I was chosen as a hero in the first place.

After all, aside from my status as the world’s strongest swordsman, I was also the world’s strongest exorcist.

My mission was to kill the Witch of Calamity and to save the world.

“So, will you help me?”

The witch laughed and glared at me.

There was a hint of hatred in her eyes.

“If only you’ve done your job properly back then, everything wouldn’t have come to this…”

Her words were true.

I could only nod my head weakly.

“I got it, fine, I’ll do my best to help you… How though?”

“Use your exorcism to gradually dispel the curse from my soul, that’s the only way to do it without killing me. It’ll probably take a few decades for everything to be done.”

“…So that’s what you meant by ‘I can’t live without you’, huh?”

“Yes. Sorry in advance, but you’re stuck with me during that time period.”

The easiest way to dispel the curse would be to kill the witch herself. There would be a period of time when the curse would stay dormant and that would be the timing to dispel the curse completely. It was just, if you failed to dispel the curse during that time, the curse would afflict the witch killer’s soul instead and we had to go back to square one if that were to happen.

“Of course, the easiest way to do it would be to kill me right now.”

That period of time when the curse stayed dormant was the moment when the curse itself was at its weakest so it would be easy to dispel it.

As a hero, that was part of my job description. To kill the witch and dispel the curse that was bound to her soul.

But…

“I don’t want to kill you.”

“I know you’d say so. Seriously, you’re such a troublesome person.”

The witch let out a deep sigh.

This part of her hadn’t changed. Even after her reincarnation, she still treated her life lightly like this.

“Let me remind you of one thing. There are no magic users in this world. That means no mages, exorcists or heroes like you. We only have one chance in this and if we fail, this world will be doomed. There’s no way that the residents of this world will be able to fight the demons.”

Demons⁴Author used 魔物 (Mamono/Monster) here. Other possible translations are demon and evil spirit. For now I’ll be translating it as demon because it’s more fitting to the exorcist theme and less mouthful than evil spirit. Might change if they introduced actual demons later in the series..

The embodiment of a curse in the form of a monster.

They feed on dark emotions and could only act on their instincts to kill humans.

Most of them had strength and agility that surpassed that of a normal human.

Because of the witch’s curse, demons spread through the other world in great numbers.

If it wasn’t because of the magic users risking their lives to fight them, humanity would’ve gone extinct already.

In other words, if demons were to appear in this world…

“Even so, I still don’t want to kill you.”

“You’re such a troublesome person. How many times have I told you that this is the fastest way?”

“Speak for yourself. If things were that simple, you wouldn’t go out of your way to transfer to this school. You could just have approached me and begged me to kill you. Why did you go out of your way to do something troublesome?”

She furrowed her brows and let out another deep sigh. It seemed like I hit a sore spot.

“…Fine, fine. In that case, you have to spend the rest of your life with me. That’s the price you have to pay for keeping me alive.”

“Now, that’s a surprise. Who knows that you’d give up this quickly. Back in the other world, you’d stop at nothing to make me kill you. Like seriously, don’t place a dagger in my hand when I’m asleep. That’s not the kind of night crawling⁵If you don’t know, 夜這い (yobai/night crawling) is a custom in ancient Japanese where an unmarried man would crawl to unmarried woman’s room at night. If the woman consented, they would do the deed. It’s one of the ways for ancient Japanese men to find a wife. that I want to experience.”

“I’m not a suicidal, stop treating me like one!”

“After everything that you’ve done, you might as well be one!”

When I rubbed the frown on my forehead, the witch pouted and turned her face away.

“…Back in my previous life, I was all alone.”

“Only halfway through your life. I was always by your side for the rest of it.”

“Being able to casually say something like that… That part of you didn’t change…”

For some reason, she looked at me with disgust.

Then, she opened her mouth to speak.

“There was no one who mourned me when I finally died except for you… Seriously, what were you thinking? I was your enemy, for hell’s sake…”

Exactly what she said.

No matter which world we came to, we would always be enemies.

“But still, you were right… I have a family now… I don’t care about my own life, but if I were to die… My family would be sad…”

She muttered those words while blushing furiously. Seeing her in this state, a series of chuckles escaped my mouth.

“W-Why are you laughing?!”

“D-Don’t mind me… Good for you then, Witch.”

I was being sincere when I said that.

She was no longer alone in this world.

“That smile of yours pisses me off… Hmph.”

The witch snorted, crossed her arms in front of her chest and leaned against the wall.

It was a familiar posture, but it felt different somehow…

“…I don’t know why, but that posture looks weird on you.”

“What?”

“Hm… Is it because you look different now?”

Due to the differences in her appearance, her posture just felt too off.

“Shut up! As if you also don’t look different from your previous life!”

“Are you implying that I look uglier now?!”

“I-I didn’t say anything like that! B-Besides, your current look doesn’t look bad…”

As expected of her, she managed to poke where it hurts without realizing it.

I didn’t manage to catch the latter half of her muttering, but whatever, I’ll forgive her for now.

“In your case, you looked pretty back then, but now you’re more cute than pretty.”

“C-Cute– A-Ahem… I’m not happy from hearing your praises, okay?”

I looked at her appearance once again.

Since she was a second year like me, she should be in her sixteen.

She was around the same age as in her previous life, but aside from her facial features, her body proportion also differed.

Compared to back then, there were two things that were missing from her appearance. Those two things were something that she was proud of. Two big things.

“W-Where are you staring at?!”

The witch hid her chest with both hands, as if to shield it from my gaze.

“Well, don’t worry about it too much, okay?”

“Don’t give me that pitying look! I’m still growing, okay?! They’ll grow for sure!”

It was rare to see her flustered like this. Since that was the case, it should be fine for me to get carried away a little.

“You had such an amazing figure back then…”

“I’ll sue you for sexual harrassment!”

“Well, I know that the only good thing about you was taken away from you, but don’t be like this. There’s still hope for you… Maybe…”

“…I see, so that’s how it is. You think I wouldn’t dare to throw hands? Let’s see how you’ll love these hands–”

She exuded a thick killing intent as she said that. I had to take a few steps back because of the pressure.

“V-Violence isn’t the answer to everything, you know? C-Calm down!”

“…Haa… Whatever. Let’s go back to the classroom quickly. It’ll be bad if I miss the entire morning classes on my first day. Also, to tell you the truth, I really didn’t want to miss the first period…”

Said the witch after looking at her watch.

I followed suit by taking out my phone. Sure enough, the first period had ended already.

The witch turned away and started to walk away. I was about to follow her when I noticed something.

“By the way, what’s up with your act back in the homeroom?”

“What? It’s my honor student act, you got a problem with that?”

“Well, an honor student wouldn’t skip class on the first day.”

“S-Stop bringing that up! You know that I had no choice but to do it!”

“So, why did you do that? Pretending to be an honor student, I mean. That’ll just make you look like a quiet kid with a communication disorder.”

“…I know, right? As expected, you think so too.”

She slumped her shoulders as she said that.

Somehow, the current atmosphere was more depressing than when we were talking about the other world.

“By the way, do you still have trouble talking to other people?”

“Yes, so what?! You were the only person I could talk properly with back in the other world, so it can’t be helped that I’m also like this right now!”

“Then was then, now is now. You aren’t a witch anymore so people wouldn’t unconditionally hate you, would they? Besides, you have family and friends now, right?”

“I-I can talk to my family just fine! F-Friends though… W-What are those? Can you eat them?”

“So you have no friends, huh?”

“S-Shut it! People don’t change that easily, okay?!”

“If you just talk like how you normally talk to me, it’ll be easier for you to find some friends. Acting like an honor student would just make people avoid you, you know?”

When she heard that advice from me, the witch furrowed her brows.

“What are you on about?”

She tilted her head, there was a confused expression in her face.

“If they were to see my true self, they would obviously hate me.”

She said that as if it was an obvious truth, leaving me with no chance to rebuke her words.

Seeing me staring at her in silence, the witch turned away and dashed toward the classroom. Her black hair danced in the air following the movements of her body.

ED: Dodo